For much of the 1980s, as commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, General Liu spearheaded ambitious efforts to transform the Chinese Navy from a coastal defense force into what is known as a blue-water navy, capable of operating far from the home country.

General Liu also served on the Politburo Standing Committee, the nine-member body that forms the top echelon of the Chinese Communist Party and makes all major policy decisions by consensus.

Some scholars say the navy is the obvious centerpiece of China’s broader military modernization.

“Without an aircraft carrier, I will die with my eyelids open; the Chinese Navy needs to build an aircraft carrier,” General Liu said in 1987, using a saying that refers to dying with an unfulfilled wish, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

General Liu’s life unfolded during the most tumultuous years of modern Chinese history. He joined the Communist army at 14, according to Xinhua, and within years he was fighting in the war to resist the Japanese invaders.

Photo

Gen. Liu Huaqing in March 1996, at closing ceremonies for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.Credit
Greg Baker/Associated Press

General Liu took part in significant events of the Chinese civil war, in which the Communists and the Kuomintang, the ruling party of China, fought to control the nation. Among these were the Long March of 1934-36, which ended with the Communists evading the Kuomintang and setting up a revolutionary base in the dust-cloaked yellow hills of Shaanxi Province.

After the Communist victory in 1949, General Liu was sent to the Soviet Union for schooling. He went on to spend much of his career involved with the science and technology departments of the People’s Liberation Army and was close to Deng Xiaoping, the leader who succeeded Mao and advocated economic reforms, according to the second edition of “The Great Wall at Sea,” a recent book on China’s naval modernization written by Bernard D. Cole, a professor at the National War College.

General Liu was an army officer before being appointed commander of the navy in 1982. He served in that post until 1987. His goal was to take a moribund coastal defense force and raise it to a level where it could compete with navies from the West.

Western military scholars say the Chinese Navy still lags far behind that of the United States but is progressing fast.

General Liu encouraged technological innovation within China that would increase naval capabilities, but he also advocated large foreign purchases.

His plan called for naval modernization to take place in three stages, with China eventually able to project force deep into island chains where the United States has been the dominant sea power for decades.

In 1989, General Liu became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the elite body in Beijing that oversees the military and answers to civilian leaders. He left the post in 1997.

A version of this article appears in print on January 18, 2011, on page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Liu Huaqing, 94, Former Chief of Chinese Navy, Dies. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe